It is Ala Ala Ala.
Thala is the melody of the song.
From the meditation cave of the unborn view,
The unobstructed self-arising ultimate deity
Red Hayagrīva, god of Zhangzhung, know me.
Lead Trogyal in his song.
Now then, listen, honorable Joru,
Children, youth, elders, these three
Are the ornaments of a long human life.
If the kind parents are good, that’s even better;
Better yet is if there is happiness from beginning to end.
Guru, student, patron, these three
Are useful to the accomplishment of the divine dharma.
If you cultivate the dharma, that’s even better;
Better yet is to reach perfect enlightenment.
Leader, minister, subjects, these three
Are the mandate for the prosperity of existence.
If the leader is kind to the ministers, that’s even better;
Better yet is if they govern the people with kindness.
Fathers and uncles, brothers and cousins, and family descendants, these three
Are the pillars for the dignity of the country.
If they can tame the enemy through skillful means, that’s even better;
Better yet is to look after the relatives with love.
Mothers, wives, and daughters, these three
Are the necessary foundation of the vibrant villages.
If they are of one mind, that’s even better;
Better yet is if they get along for a long time.
Business, games, and weddings, these three
Are used as the stakes for pooling wealth and property.
If trade is without profit and loss, that’s even better;
Better yet is if all minds are in harmony.
Uncle, Joru, and Gogmo, these three;
It’s better if Uncle, who has many horses, has some that are wild,
Better if Joru, who has one horse, has the one that is tame,
Better yet if Gogmo, who is hungry, has plenty of food to eat.
Nephews and uncles making deals with each other is good;
Even better if their superior wares go to the family;
Better yet if their minds and aspirations are harmonious;
Best of all if their deals are without profit or loss.
Relatives, friends, and bosom buddies, these three
Are vital parts of a happy existence;
If they bring happiness and benefit to each other, it’s even better;
Still better if they hold one another in great esteem.
The sun, the moon, the stars, these three
Are the ornament of the azure firmament.
The warmth and radiance of their light illuminates Jambudvīpa.
They remain together inseparably in the sky.
The southern clouds, the turquoise dragon, and gentle pleasant rains, these three
Are the ornament of the empty middle sky.
As they befriend and assist one another,
They are universally praised and coexist inseparably.
Grasses, crops, and fruit, these three
Are the ornament of the dense earth,
Guaranteeing all beings happiness and well-being;
Bringing both beauty and sustenance as they coexist inseparably.
Fathers, uncles, nephews, these three
Gather as ornaments of the world of Jambudvīpa.
Through skill and wisdom they tame the four enemies,
Bringing joy and well-being as they coexist inseparably.
Tea, meat, and beer, these three
Are for your banquet, Joru.
This Prosperity Blossom tea from China,
The more you drink it, the clearer your mind becomes;
Eating the marbled meat gives you great fortitude;
Drinking the potent beer lifts your spirits.
Silk and gold and silver, these three
Are the bonus given in trade for the steed.
According to the ancient sayings of Tibet:
Disciples who violate samaya will not gain buddhahood,
It doesn’t matter whether you’re wise and learned or not.
Without merit, wealth will not come your way,
It doesn’t matter whether you work hard or not.
An unwise daughter will never know happiness,
It doesn’t matter whether she’s good-looking or not.
A weak Joru cannot rule the people,
It doesn’t matter if you win the golden throne or not.
This untamed wild horse,
If nephew rides it, will place his life in peril.
Therefore, let uncle and nephew trade horses.
If you understand this, it’s sweet to the ears.
If not, there is no way to explain it.
Thus he sang, and Joru partook of all the food, the tea, and the beer at the banquet. Their aroma and flavor suffused his body, and his spirits soared higher than the sky. His speech was imbued with charismatic eloquence such that his words reached farther than a river. Once the meal was digested, his mind was struck with the power of omniscience; his knowledge and his loving-kindness became more radiant than the sun and the moon. Behaving as though he were slightly intoxicated, he gazed up at his uncle and down at Wild Kyang, laughing and smiling as he broke into this song in the melody of A Slowly Rolling River:
It is Ala Ala Ala.
Thala is the melody of the song.
Guru, yidam, ḍākinī, these three,
Please remain inseparable as my crown ornament.
Dwelling there, please grant your blessings.
If you don’t recognize me,
I am the divine child Nangwa Ödden,
And the human child King Joru,
And the nāga child Sampa’i Döndrub [Accomplisher of All Wishes].
Listen here, for I have something to say.
First, innocent as a child,
Second, without a guide as a youth,
And third, shameless as the elderly;
It’s hard for there to be happiness from beginning to end.
The guru, overpowered by craving,
The view of the student opposed to dharma,
The mind of the patron tied by the knot of avarice;
It’s hard for them to keep the vow of samaya.
A chieftain’s mind and sights are set on wealth,
The minister turns the law on its head,
They bring punishment to innocent subjects;
It’s hard to say they are kind-hearted.
Uncles with deception and conflict greater than a mountain,
Brethren with hearts more rotten than a corpse,
A helpless nephew exiled to the borderlands;
It’s hard to both conquer the enemy and look after relatives.
Mother’s face darker than a stormy sky,
Conniving sisters-in-law, wilder than goats,
Daughters’ minds driven by desire;
It’s difficult for them to stay together for long.
As business partners,83 uncles are spiteful to the core,
As a business partner,84 Joru is naturally smart,
The favored Wild Kyang is a high-priced horse;
It’s hard to just get your own way.
Ultimately, relatives are burdened by animosity;
In the end, friends take sides in disputes;
Bosom buddies are finally divided by slander;
It’s hard to say that they really value one another.
The sun flees behind the western mountains,
The moon is lost in the blackness of dark clouds,
The stars are driven away by dawn;
It’s hard to say they are the ornaments of the azure firmament.
The southern clouds are scattered by the icy winds,
The turquoise dragon’s tail is hidden in the earth,85
The pleasant rains vanish into empty s
pace;
It’s hard to say that they are inseparable companions.
Grasses are eaten by the hoofed wild ones,
The crops become the harvest that fills the silos,
Ripened fruit rots on the ground;
These are merely fleeting ornaments of the dense earth.
Father Senglön is rotten to the core,
Uncle Trothung has many schemes,
Nephew Joru is full of commotion;
It’s hard for our minds to combine upāya and prajñā.
First, Joru, mandated by the gods,
Second, Wild Kyang, given by the nyen,
Third, the golden saddle, received from the nāgas;
If they come together, the race will be easy.
Then this beggar boy will make a fortune.
When a beggar boy gains wealth,
The mind of a rich man will bring him down.
When the prosperity sheep get plump,
The mouths of coyotes and wolves start to tremble.
When the buck’s rack is full grown,
The hunter’s spirit trembles to no avail.
I think all of this indicates meaningless confusion.
Not only that, I also think it’s full of sin.
You who tend your sheep and your yaks;
When the time is right, the owner takes their fleece and hair.
You work your fields and acreage;
When the crops are mature the owner will just harvest the grains and beans.
Fathers and uncles stockpile their food and wealth;
When sons and nephews arrive, they spread it before us.
That is the great joy gained from those with expectations.
Not only that, I think this is their way of accumulating virtue and benefit.
The fuller my stomach, the more I count on my horse;
The more I drink, the more I miss Drugmo.
Now, I’m not going to trade my horse; I’m leaving instead.
I really could care less if I am able to unite the people of Ling or not—
It’s enough for me to just have Drugmo.
If you understand this, it’s sweet to the ears.
If not, there is no way to explain it.
Uncle, keep this in your mind.
Thus he sang, and putting all the scarves, gold, and silver into his little bag, he prepared to leave. Uncle said, “If we don’t trade horses, then don’t take the extras. Of course you can take the banquet food since it was my gift to you, Nephew.” Joru said to his uncle, “I told you to give me the best party you could and afterward we would talk about the horse trade. But if you ask me to return the whole party you’ve given me, it is for sure we’ll have a falling out. Uncle, you must remember our agreement about the nine-edged prosperity bag.” And leading his horse, he left.
Uncle was left without anything to do, even though his mind was full of regret. Chipön, Gyatsha, and Denma all realized that this horse of Joru’s was acquired as a sign of the collective merit of many beings. They each offered an Auspicious-by-Day scarf. Then on the excellent day called Happy Good Fortune, Joru and his horse arrived at Kyalo’s door. He said, “Ya, Sengcham Drugmo, you said that you would have the saddle for the horse, the whip for the man, and the prayer for the whip. Now, the time has come when they are needed.” Then Kyalo Tönpa Gyaltsen erected a precious golden throne and placed a silken brocade cushion upon it. Arranging sweet delicacies for the party and offering the auspicious greeting scarf, he sang this song about the state of affairs:
It is Ala Ala Ala.
Thala is the melody of the song.
In the palace of the cannibal demons of Cāmara,
Outwardly he is the king of the rākṣasas,
Inwardly he is the Mahāsiddha Lotus Born,
Secretly he is the actual Great Vajradhara.
Vidyādhara Lotus Born, know me!
If you don’t recognize me,
I am Kyalo Tönpa Gyaltsen.
I am a reincarnation of Jambhala,d
I am the patron of Uḍḍiyāṇa Padmasambhava,
And Sengcham Drugmo’s father.
Kyalo, Ngolo, and Drolo, these three,
Are brothers whose wealth is equal.
One day we three brothers went to the mountain;
One guru, who came from who knows where,
Brought forth faith just by his mere presence.
Just meeting him inspired devotion.
Simply hearing his speech brought liberation.
He was driving some animals ahead of him
Loaded with his provisions.
When we met him, this is what the guru said:
“The saddle, halter, and the saddle blanket, these three,
Including the whip, these four,
Are the inner wealth of Migön Karpo from the nāgas.
Kyalo, I ask you to keep it safe and sound.
Someday, as mandated for the world,
A sublime being with unimpeded magical powers will come.
Once he comes into Kyalo’s family home,
You must place this wealth into the hands of its owner.”
My son Drug-gyal86 came, but he has no magic powers.
Sengcham came, but she was born as a woman,
And not only that but as [your mother]
Nāginī Yelga Dzeiden.
When Ling acquired her as booty,
I had a mixture of dreams and visions so profound
That even the wide sky could not cover them,
The dense earth could not hold them,
And all of these signs point to you, Joru.
The towering white crag peaks reach higher and higher.
Although not intentionally created for the white vulture,
It is the natural circling place of this king of birds.
The juniper treetop reaches higher and higher.
Although not intentionally planned for the cuckoo bird,
It is this happy divine bird’s own merit.
Beneath the surface are the churning depths of the ocean.
Although this churning is not intentionally made for the sake of white-bellied fish,
That the undulating female fish swims here is her own karmic ripening.
The abundant wealth of Kyalo Tönpa,
Although not intentionally accumulated just for Joru,
Seems to be the result of Joru’s own merit.
The ring of an abundance of endowments
Is ready to be invoked by the hook of merit.
Yet to win the golden throne and the mother’s womb,
It is unheard of that this could be done with just a fast-running horse.
When life is over, even an artist can’t reconstruct it,
Negative character can’t be pounded into shape by a blacksmith.
Previous karma can’t be wagered by the stallion in the horse race.
The power of karma can’t be blocked by a hand.
If the mind of the great knower is accurate,
For Joru [to become the holder of] the imperial golden throne, the leader of Ling,
And Sengcham Drugmo’s bridegroom, all three,
Is how things were ordained by the gods.
If you understand this, it’s sweet to the ears.
If not, there is no way to explain it.
Thus he spoke. Then Kyalo Sengcham Drugmo offered the tack for the horse, the whip for the man, and she sang this song in order to open the great secret of the steed, in the Six Melodies of the Divine Drum.
It is Ala Ala Ala.
Thala is the melody of the song.
From the pure realm of Turquoise Leaves,
Jetsün Ārya Tārā, know me.
Look upon me with your omniscience, and lead Drugmo in her song.
This is the day of the auspicious sun;
The constellations in the sky are excellently aligned,
The signs of good fortune in the middle are excellent,
On earth the time for humankind is excellent.
Therefore, on this divine horse Kyang-bu,
In the finest vulture down at the tip of his ears
Dwells the great secret of unimpeded sound.
This whip that fulfills all wishes
I will wave three times over the tips of the ears,
But not too hard, for I’m afraid it might disturb his finely feathered hair,
And not too weakly, or the great secret will not open.
If there is a great secret, may it open it today.
In the pupils of this horse, like those of a hostile snake,
Exists the great secret of unimpeded form.
I will wave this whip three times over his eye sockets,
But not too hard, so as to disturb his hair,
And not too weakly, or the great secret will not open.
If there is a great secret, may it open it today.
In the nostrils of this horse, like those of a white snow lion,
Is the great secret of unimpeded smell.
I will wave this whip three times over the sinus cavity,
But not too hard, so as to disturb his hair,
And not too weakly, or the great secret will not open.
If there is a great secret, may it open it today.
In the mouth and tongue of this horse, like those of a red tiger,
Is the unimpeded great secret taste.
I will wave this whip three times over the muzzle.87
But not too hard, so as to disturb his hair,
And not too weakly, or the great secret will not open.
If there is a great secret, may it open it today.
The horse’s body is like a red flag blowing in the wind.
This body has the great secret of unimpeded feeling.
I will wave this whip three times over the horse’s body,
But not too hard, so as to disturb his hair,
And not too weakly, or the great secret will not open.
If there is a great secret, may it open it today.
In the tent of the precious heart of this horse
Dwells the great secret of all-pervasive awareness.
The Epic of Gesar of Ling Page 51
